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Fomma Book Launch at Art Dubai

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FOMMA BOOK LAUNCH AT "ART DUBAI"

Fomma's forthcoming title is a special volume of Third Text Asia (TTA) devoted to the theme "Art, Scholarship and the Arab-Muslim World". It will be formally launched in Dubai at this year's international art festival "Art Dubai" in the Art Park area at Madinat Jumeirah on 18 March 2009 (5.30 pm) at the end of the day's session of the Global Art Forum.

Mr. Partha Chaterjee, one of India's best known Art Critics had selected FOMMA's publication on Rabia Zuberi to be the subject of his article in the Arts section of FRONTLINE Magazine for November 21st to December 04th 2010.

An excerpt has been provided below with the full article, complete with images can be found here:

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20091204262408800.htm

An excerpt from the article has been included below:

"In most assessments, Rabia Zuberiâs contribution as a teacher and organiser tends to overshadow her achievements as a sculptor and painter.

RABIA ZUBERI is a pioneering figure in the world of the plastic arts in Pakistan. She has done more to have art accepted as a worthy activity of self-expression in her country Buy Cialis than any other individual. Art in Pakistan was centred around the activities of three artists, Sadequain, Gulgee and Iqbal Geoffrey. Of the three, only Geoffrey (Jaffrey, really) enjoyed the luxury of complete artistic freedom, having lived and worked in England all his adult life. In a country constantly fighting off the stranglehold of mullahs, depiction of the human form has been an act fraught with peril.

Rabia Zuberiâs arrival in Karachi, Sindh, in 1964 as an impressionable 24-year-old from India was fortuitous. The city was bereft of a real artistic tradition. Whatever art was left in the country after the Partition of the subcontinent in 1947 survived in far-off Lahore. She came like welcome rain in a desert............"

FOMMA Gains Exclusive Access to "Arts In The Islamic World (AIW)" Archives

The half yearly journal "Arts & The Islamic World (AIW)" was published from London for 18 years (1983-2001), and was a leading periodical focused on the arts scene in the Arab and Islamic countries and communities worldwide. During this period, 36 volumes were produced by an honorary editorial board headed by the late Mr. Muazzam Ali, and comprising Mr. Jalal Uddin Ahmed as Executive Editor, Mrs. Azra J Ahmed as Coordinating Editor, and a number of correspondents and contributing editors from various Eastern and Western countries. The design, research, production and marketing team comprised Mr. Zafar A Malik as Art Director, Mr M Risaluddin as Development Advisor, Mr. James Parry as Director Planning & Research, Mr Ashraf Kazi as Marketing Director, and Ms Camilla Edwards as Research Associate. Back issues of the journal have not been available for several years. Now at the suggestion of a number of Islamic art scholars and institutions, the journal's surviving Editors, Mr and Mrs J U Ahmed, have agreed that a digitized version of all 36 volumes may be produced and distributed on a non-profit basis by the Foundation for Museum of Modern Art (FOMMA), Karachi.

FOMMA itself being a non-profit educational and cultural entity in the private sector - aimed at promoting the study and critical appreciation of contemporary visual arts - its Trustees are happy to announce that a digitized DVD version of AIW back files is being put together from a printed set of the original published volumes of the journal. A limited number of sets will be offered to the arts community internationally at a minimum cost. Any revenues generated will be entirely devoted to develop FOMMA's plan for setting up a Museum of Modern Art and an Art Library, for which space has been allocated to FOMMA in the proposed Museums Complex at the upcoming Race Course Garden (RCG) Project in Karachi.

Pratapditya Pal is the General Editor of Marg Publications, India. Recognised as an authority on the Arts and Culture of the subcontinent, particularly the Himalayas and Southeast Asia, he is a prolific writer with over 60 publications.

Sindh, Past Glory, Present Nostalgia is perhaps the first lavishy illustrated book by Marg Publications about the heritage of Sindh, by writers from both India and Pakistan.

A copy of the article printed in DAWN news dated April 5th 2009 is copied below:

"Revising the Genealogy of Art History - Salwat Ali

Art that was once regarded by Europe and the United States as comingâfrom the marginsâ and thus being scarcely worthy of consideration, is now asserting its presence as a legitimate entity with independent discourses that go far beyond Eurocentricity. Today a new transnational perspective is needed to place this neglected body of work in its appropriate context within the art hierarchy. Other than meaningful production it is advances in art scholarship also that is providing marginalized art the platform it needs to project itself. Anew art history is in the making and journals like Third Text Asia can play a significant role in defining the complex cultural realities that emerge when different worldviews meet.

A scholarly journal focusing on the fields of art criticism, art history and cultural studies âThird Textâ founded by artist, activist and scholar Rasheed Araeen is published from London, UK. Questioning the Western Modernist Canon from the margins, as early as 1987 it promotes independent writings by analysts, researchers and critics who expose the âirrationality and bankruptcy of mainstream dominant art scholarshipâ by presenting a true picture of art the world over. The recent introduction of Third Text Asia edition by Fomma Pakistan is another move to further the reach / influence of these perspectives to the regions where this so called âperipheralâ art is being produced. Assimilation of its contents will empower the artist communities here and provide them with the necessary imperatives and sense of direction with which to move forward. The volume gained additional spotlight when a special issue of Third Text Asia titled âArts, Scholarship and the Arab/Muslim Worldâ was launched by Fomma in the Bidoun Lounge Art Park at UAEâs leading art festival Art Dubai 2009.

The foremost article in this Spring 2009 issue is most certainly Araeenâs âPreliminary notes for the understanding of historical significance of geometry in Islamic thought, and its suppressed role in the genealogy of world history.â He undertakes a serious investigation of geometry as an artistic form in Islamic art and how and why the Muslim world lost the tradition of rational thinking that emanated from it. He wonders why it has âtrapped itself within a worldview that in fact opposes and denies the Muslim world not only its own spirit but its place in the genealogy of world historyâ and questions if it is âpossible now to recover the past achievements of the Arab /Islamic history and its own worldview â and how.â

The pyramids, temples, palaces and sculpture of Egypt and Mesopotamiaare among the earliest expressions of geometric abstraction but in a Greek art scape, preoccupied with visual manifestations of its Gods,the artistic spirit of geometry did not evolve to greater heights.According to the author, âThe important point here is that although modern Western philosophy began its journey with the knowledge that originated with the Greeks, it was the Arabs who had developed this classical knowledge further and elaborated it before it reached Europe and produced the European Renaissance.â The arrival Pay Day Loans of Greek knowledge in 9th century Baghdad (especially Euclids geometry) played a fundamental role in Arab science, philosophy and astronomy but it also led to the emergence of a unique sensory form of art. Defined by a complex physical symmetry this art went far beyond pattern making to provoke the imagination to penetrate the cosmos and perceive the invisible. Its true spirit revealed not only the abstractness of the Divine but also the nature of the infinite cosmos which it created. In this context âArab Islamic history is therefore central to the historythat links Europe with the ancient Greeks and the knowledge Europe produced following this link that laid the foundation for the modern world.â Unfortunately this role of Islamic history was completely removed from the genealogy of art history and direct links were established between modern Europe and ancient Greeks. Fortunately âthe emergence of abstract form in modern art with symmetry under pinning its formations, particularly in Minimalism, has infact vindicated the centrality of geometry in the spirits historical journey from itsearlier periods to the modernâ¦â¦.. Minimalism, one of the most important post war avant-garde movements, depends on the symmetry and seriality that are fundamental to the geometry of Islamic art, and confirms the importance for the modern world of those ideas that emerged almost a thousand years ago from the Islamic spirit.â

Other articles also expound the issue of identity and deliberate displacement but with reference to a more recent past. It is easy to empathize and locate similarities in Zeynep Celikâs recount Colonial /Post Colonial Intersections â Lieux de Memoire in Algiers, as we too have been (and still are ) victims of colonial strategies,machinations and post colonial confusion. Similarly âAnwar Jelal Shemza â Search for Cultural Identityâ by Mary Shemza is not just a very interesting read but also treads familiar ground to as it sheds light on an old master whom we lost early to the London art scene of the 60âs but who continued to explore his Islamic roots.

Presently Third Text is the only journal available here that presents contextual studies of Asian art, past and present, with the intention of reclaiming lost space in the art historical index. It publishes information about ignored and suppressed artworks, highlighting their historical place within modern developments, along with theoretical articles which critique and analyze the prevailing situation. Today when Pakistani art has just begun to step out in the global arena this journal should be considered âessential reading.â"